Why it's a Good Thing to Fail

photo: "Geraniums" by TrilliumStudios.etsy.com

(These are some thoughts I wanted to share, after a recent discussion with some business colleagues)

"Failure will either kill you or make you stronger."

I think it's good to fail, to feel the pain and loneliness of having your dreams dashed and your hard work turned to dust...and then look around you and realize that no one can build you up again, except yourself and you can either sit in your ruins and cry forever or you can make something of yourself. Something different. Something better. You won't make the same mistakes you did before and although you may fail again, it won't be to such great degree as it was before. With each failure, you come back 10x stronger. But you have to be willing to cut off the dying parts, if you want something better to grow there (think gardening - plants pour a lot of regrowth energy into newly trimmed/pruned parts and the whole plant gets healthier over time - every time I pull a dead leaf off my geranium, a new bud grows in it's place).

They say that the the definition of "insanity" is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

How this relates to business: the key to getting sales is really simple - having products people WANT at a price they are willing to PAY and creating paths for these people to FIND YOU. If you aren't selling, it's because one of these 3 key ingredients is missing. It may be painful to admit that to yourself, especially if you have been working hard, but nothing's going to change until you accept that fact and move on.

Having failed many times at various different things, I speak from experience. I haven't "arrived" yet, but I'm a lot farther along than when I first started out in this business (4 years ago) and I've learned to separate my "artistic emotions" from my business instincts. It really has made all the difference in the world.

-Shalom-